Montserrat Tura (born 6 November 1954) is a

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...

politician and Member of the

Parliament of Catalonia The Parliament of Catalonia ( ca, Parlament de Catalunya, ; es, Parlamento de Cataluña; oc, Parlament de Catalonha) is the unicameral legislature of the autonomous community of Catalonia, Spain. The Parliament is currently made up of 135 mem ...

. From 29 November 2006 to 29 December 2010, she had served as Minister of Justice of Catalonia. She is considered one of the most prominent members of the

Catalanist Catalan nationalism is the ideology asserting that the Catalans are a distinct nation. Intellectually, modern Catalan nationalism can be said to have commenced as a political philosophy in the unsuccessful attempts to establish a federal state i ...

wing of the

Socialists' Party of Catalonia The Socialists' Party of Catalonia ( ca, Partit dels Socialistes de Catalunya, PSC–PSOE official acronym) is a social-democratic political party in Catalonia, Spain, resulting from the merger of three parties: the Socialist Party of Catalonia ...

. She is married with two daughters.

Life

She was born in

Mollet del Vallès Mollet del Vallès () is a municipality in the ''comarca'' of the Vallès Oriental in Catalonia, Spain. It is situated in the valley of the Besòs river, and is an important communications hub from Barcelona towards the north: the AP-7 Motorwa ...

(

Province of Barcelona Barcelona (, ) is a province of eastern Spain, in the center of the autonomous community of Catalonia. The province is bordered by the provinces of Tarragona, Lleida, and Girona, and by the Mediterranean Sea. Its area is .Catalanism Catalan nationalism is the ideology asserting that the Catalans are a distinct nation. Intellectually, modern Catalan nationalism can be said to have commenced as a political philosophy in the unsuccessful attempts to establish a federal state i ...

. Her uncle was member of the

Republican Left of Catalonia The Republican Left of Catalonia ( ca, Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya, ERC; ; generically branded as ) is a Catalan independence movement, pro-Catalan independence, social democracy, social-democratic List of political parties in Catalonia, p ...

and mayor of the town during the Second Republic; her great grandfather was also mayor in the 1910s, and prominent member of the Catalan Regionalist League. The cousin of her father,

Jordi Solé Tura Jordi Solé Tura (23 May 1930 in Mollet del Vallés – 4 December 2009 in Barcelona) was a Spanish politician, jurist and one of the co-authors and "Fathers" of the Spanish Constitution of 1978 following Spain's move to democracy.

, was a prominent Catalan Communist politician. She was linked to anti-

Francoist Francoist Spain ( es, España franquista), or the Francoist dictatorship (), was the period of Spanish history between 1939 and 1975, when Francisco Franco ruled Spain after the Spanish Civil War with the title . After his death in 1975, Spani ...

organisations from a very early age. Clandestinely active since she was sixteen and in the first years of the transition after Franco's death, she took part in university movements and in a number of environmentalist and leftist groups.Official Catalonia Government biography
. Retrieved 2010-12-15. After graduating with degrees in

Medicine Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care pract ...

and

Surgery Surgery ''cheirourgikē'' (composed of χείρ, "hand", and ἔργον, "work"), via la, chirurgiae, meaning "hand work". is a medical specialty that uses operative manual and instrumental techniques on a person to investigate or treat a pat ...

from the

University of Barcelona The University of Barcelona ( ca, Universitat de Barcelona, UB; ; es, link=no, Universidad de Barcelona) is a public university located in the city of Barcelona, Catalonia, in Spain. With 63,000 students, it is one of the biggest universities i ...

, she combined medical practice with her specialisation in health care management and economics. In 1981, she started practicing at

Palamós Palamós () is a town and municipality in the Mediterranean Costa Brava, located in the ''comarca'' of Baix Empordà, in the province of Girona, Catalonia, Spain. Palamós is located at the northern end of a large bay. The town is by-passed by th ...

Hospital, and was appointed General Director the following year. During her time as Medical Director and General Director, she also oversaw the planning and construction of a new hospital. Except for the time she worked in Palamós, Tura has always lived in Mollet.

Political background

In 1979, she joined the

(the Catalan sister party of the

Spanish Socialist Workers' Party The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party ( es, Partido Socialista Obrero Español ; PSOE ) is a social-democraticThe PSOE is described as a social-democratic party by numerous sources: * * * * political party in Spain. The PSOE has been in gov ...

) and has been a member of the national leadership since 1990. She was Mayoress of Mollet from 30 June 1987 to 21 December 2003, a time when the city underwent an extraordinary transformation from both the urban and sociocultural point of view. It was an Olympic site in the 1992 Barcelona Games and commemorated its Millennium in 1993. Some flagship projects during her office are the ''Museu Municipal Joan Abelló'', the ''Parc dels Colors'', by architect

Enric Miralles Enric Miralles Moya (12 February 1955 – 3 July 2000) was a Spanish architect from Barcelona. He graduated from the Barcelona School of Architecture (ETSAB) at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) in 1978. After establishing h ...

, and the new Town Hall. During this time, she also held the following posts: * County Councillor for Vallès Oriental (1988–1991) * President of the Consortium for the Defence of the Besòs River Basin (1993–1995) * Member of the Executive Committee of the Federation of Municipalities of Catalonia (FMC) * President of the Group of Socialist and Progressive Local Representatives of Catalonia (1993–1995) * President of the various independent municipal agencies * President of the Private Foundation for

Environmental Studies Environmental studies is a multidisciplinary academic field which systematically studies human interaction with the environment. Environmental studies connects principles from the physical sciences, commerce/economics, the humanities, and social ...

, in charge of managing the

Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya The Technical University of Catalonia ( ca, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, , es, link=no, Universidad Politécnica de Cataluña; UPC), currently referred to as BarcelonaTech, is the largest engineering university in Catalonia, Spai ...

for the environment, a college attached to the

Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona The Autonomous University of Barcelona ( ca, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona; , es, Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona; UAB), is a public university mostly located in Cerdanyola del Vallès, near the city of Barcelona in Catalonia, Spain. ...

. She has the following responsibilities in her party: * President of the Local Group of Mollet * Member of the National Executive Committee of the

(PSC) * National Secretary for the Environment She was elected Member of the

Catalan Parliament The Parliament of Catalonia ( ca, Parlament de Catalunya, ; es, Parlamento de Cataluña; oc, Parlament de Catalonha) is the unicameral legislature of the autonomous community of Catalonia, Spain. The Parliament is currently made up of 135 mem ...

in the 1995 regional elections and re-elected in 1999 and 2003. As an MP, she has been on the Regional Policy, Economy, Finances and Budgets committees, and she was Vice President of the Organisation and Administration of the Regional Assembly and Local Government committee. In the sixth term of office, she was spokesperson for the Socialists - Citizens for Change parliamentary group and part of its management committee. In January 2004, she resigned her seat. On January 12, 2010, Tura announced she intended to run for mayor of

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

, facing in the PSC's primaries the incumbent mayor

Jordi Hereu Jordi Hereu i Boher (; born 14 June 1965 in Barcelona, Spain) is a politician, member of the PSC. He was the Mayor of Barcelona from 2006 to 2011. He is married, has two children and holds a MBA in business administration from the ESADE Business ...

References

External links

Montserrat Tura
(in Catalan)
PSC biography
(in Catalan) {{DEFAULTSORT:Tura, Montserrat 1954 births 20th-century Spanish politicians 21st-century Spanish politicians 21st-century Spanish women politicians Justice ministers of Catalonia Living people Mayors of places in Catalonia Members of the Parliament of Catalonia People from Vallès Oriental Second Secretaries of the Parliament of Catalonia Socialists' Party of Catalonia politicians Women mayors of places in Spain Women politicians from Catalonia Members of the 5th Parliament of Catalonia 20th-century Spanish women politicians